“We know what it’s like, and we want to help."

On March 3, border patrol agents detained Perla Morales-Luna as she was walking with her daughters in National City, California, in the San Diego metropolitan area. The agents left her daughters — 17, 15, and 12 — alone on the sidewalk as they sped away with Perla in their SUV. The incident was captured on video and shared online, drawing millions of views and sparking outrage in the community and online.

During the 17 days when Perla’s fate was being decided by the immigration court, her children — all U.S. citizens — lived with family in the San Diego area.
Upon hearing the news of Perla’s arrest, 13-year-old activists Yarely and Aracely Duarte, who are twins, were ready to spring to action. Their own parents had been detained by immigration officials in May 2017, and they were forced to live without them for months at age 12 while their parents were kept at Otay Mesa Detention Facility. Although this was a terrifying ordeal for the twins, they became immigration rights activists rather than staying frozen in fear.

Yarely tells Teen Vogue that the center where their parents were held was nicknamed “freezer” because the facilities were kept at very low temperatures. “My parents had a slab of metal for a bed and no blankets,” Yarely says. “[The detention center] was trying to pressure my parents to self-deport.” (Teen Vogue reached out to ICE for comment about these practices, and spokesperson Lauren Mack replied, saying, "I’ve confirmed the procedure for requesting extra blankets or adjustments to the room temperature at the Otay Mesa Detention Center involves notification to the case manager at the housing unit. Each housing unit has a case manager assigned to facilitate these types of requests. The case manager is employed by Core Civic. Detainees make their requests directly to their case manager at the unit." In a follow-up email, Mack said, "I have confirmed there is no 'federal detention monitoring unit' at the Otay Mesa Detention Facility. The ICE detainees at OMDC are housed as part of the federal immigration 'civil detention' system. ICE has a compliance unit at the facility. Within that unit we have a contract officer technical representative and as well a detention service manager, who reports to our headquarters office.")

The twins have two older brothers, who were 17 and 19 at the time, and all were left to fend for themselves. “We were confused and scared,” Aracely says. “But we had support,” she says, referring to community support, spearheaded by Mark Lane, a National City activist who works on behalf of families separated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. “I…help the children with fund-raising [to mitigate] financial issues that occur when parents are detained. We want to make sure they continue being children,” Lane tells Teen Vogue.

With Lane’s help, the twins learned about immigration laws and started speaking out at city council meetings and rallies. The children also launched a GoFundMe campaign that raised $74,000 for their living expenses and legal fees for their parents. Partly due to the children’s activism and the help from residents and legislators, National City declared itself a compassionate community for refugees and immigrants in June 2017.

The twins' mother was detained for almost a month, and their father was held in the detention facility for seven months. Their parents are now fighting to obtain permanent-resident status as Aracely and Yarely continue their activism. When Perla Morales-Luna was arrested in March, they demanded that families not be "brutally separated" by immigration officials in the U.S. The government at first said that Perla was involved in human trafficking, which she denied; she was charged only with being in the country illegally. She has since been released. Had she not been released quickly, the twins were ready to help Perla's daughters cope with the trauma of being separated from their mother.

“We know what it’s like, and we want to help,” Yarely says.

Besides their activism, the twins and their siblings are quite serious about their academic achievements. Their brother, Luis, was just accepted to Stanford on a full scholarship.

Families in the San Diego area are still being separated by immigration authorities despite the community outcry. Lane recounted the case of a mother who cooperated as a material witness against a trafficking cartel and was promised temporary status: “They said her permit was ready. But she was deported after the trial. She asked for asylum but is now being held in detention.”

While residents of National City cannot affect immigration policies, if elected for city council, candidate José Rodriguez tells Teen Vogue that he will support the creation of a volunteer human rights relation commission. “[We want to allow for] a budget to oversee at least two full-time positions that assist families torn apart by deportation or have family members in detention,” Rodriguez says.

No matter the outcome, the Duarte twins are committed to continuing to push for more-humane laws and helping families who are separated by immigration officials.